A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



whoo hath doune heretofore, and yett doth, teach 

 a Free Schole of grammer according to the Foun- 

 dacion of the same.' The pension certificate 

 founded on it gave the net income of the incum- 

 bent as 10 8s. o^d. A note adds : 'Continuatur 

 the schole quoust/ue.' 7 Accordingly, by a warrant 

 signed 2O July 1548 by Sir Walter Mildmay and 

 Robert Kelway, the two officers of the Court 

 of Augmentations of the revenues of the Crown 

 accruing from the dissolutions of monasteries 

 and chantries, appointed to make provision for 

 the continuance of the schools and payments to 

 poor people, the school and the alms were con- 

 tinued. ' Forasmoche as it appearith by the 

 certificate of the particular surveyer of landes of 

 the said courte in the saide countie that a gram- 

 mer schole hath been contynuallie kept in 

 Thorneton . . with the revenues of the late 

 chauntery of our ladye there. . . Wee therefore 

 . . haue assigned and appoynted that the saide 

 grammer schole shall contynewe, and that Wil- 

 liam Abbot, scholemaster there, shall haue and 

 enjoye the rome of scholemaster there, and shall 

 have for his wages yerelie jio 8*. o^.' The 

 receiver of the Crown rents in the courts was 

 required to pay the income accordingly. 



It is clear, therefore, that this foundation, 

 three years later than that of Eton, was a small 

 Eton with such difference in size as was propor- 

 tionate to the riches of a recorder as compared 

 with the resources of a monarch. But all the 

 essential items were the same the masses for the 

 founder's soul, the grammar school, free like that 

 of Eton for all children of the town or oppidans, 

 without payment of fees, the special provision of 

 scholars on the foundation, and the almsfolk. 

 Only whereas at Eton the masses were to be said 

 by a provost and 10 fellows and 10 chaplains, 

 and quite independent of the master who taught 

 the school, at Thornton the chaplain and the 

 master were one person ; and the 70 scholars at 

 Eton, boarded and lodged as well as clothed 

 were represented by 6 who only received their 

 livery, i.e. clothes; and the 13 almsfolk, lodged, 

 clothed, and boarded with stipends of ^3 os. 8d. a 

 year, were represented only by 6 almsfolk paid 6d. 

 a week, or less than ' a penny a day, because they 

 can't run any faster.' To complete the resem- 

 blance, the foundation was remade in the reign 

 of Edward IV; and as at Eton King Edward was 

 substituted as founder for King Henry, so the 

 Edwardian lord of the manor, Ingleton, was 

 credited with Barton's foundation. 



The school was accordingly continued. The 

 Augmentation Office Accounts show that William 

 Abbot was duly paid his salary. The receiver 



7 So in some cases, but it is generally abbreviated, 

 and should perhaps be continuetur, ' let the school be 

 continued.' It is not clear whether the notes on 

 these certificates are a record of what had been done 

 or orders to do something. 



yearly accounts 8 for ' ^7 1 6s. cash paid to the six 

 poor, and in like cash (denariis) paid to William 

 Abbot, schoolmaster of the school of letters 

 (ludimagistro ludi litterarii) of Thornton, at 

 jiO 8s.' the halfpenny was dropped ' so 

 allowed to him by warrant of Walter Mildemaye 

 and Robert Kylwey.' Two years later for the 

 highly Latinized substitute for grammar school, 

 Indus Jitterarius, the still more classically affected 

 palestra litterarla is used in the receiver's entry. 

 William Abbot was paid year by year all 

 through the reigns of Edward VI, Philip and 

 Mary, and up to 1574. No doubt he then 

 died, being, as he was 60 in 1548, no less than 

 86 years old. He was succeeded by John Kinge, 

 who is called by the august title of ' school- 

 master of Our Lady the Queen at Thorneton.' 

 He was paid for five years. Then came An- 

 thony Gate, in whose time, in 1587, the older 

 title of schoolmaster of the grammar school 

 (schole grammaticalis) was revived, and the pay- 

 ment was said to be made out of the church of 

 Penn by virtue of a warrant of William, Baron 

 of Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England, and of 

 Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

 So some new proceedings had taken place in the 

 Exchequer resulting in the payment now being 

 charged on a particular piece of property, the 

 rectory of Penn, instead of the Crown revenues 

 of the county at large. Five years later the 

 payment is entered as made to James Smith, 

 ' schoolmaster of the grammar school of the town 

 of Buckingham,' which looks as if there was an 

 attempt to transfer the payment from the small 

 village of Thornton, where no doubt the school 

 languished, to the county town. But if so, the 

 scheme was frustrated for a while ; for next year 

 the payment is again made to Anthony Gate, 

 ' master at Thornton,' and so continues for four 

 years more. But from 1597 tne payment is 

 made again to James Smith, ' schoolmaster of the 

 grammar school of the town of Buckingham.' 

 This continues to the end of Elizabeth's reign. 

 Then it is made to Robert Tomlyns, also de- 

 scribed as ' schoolmaster of the grammar school 

 at the town of Buckingham,' and this is stated 

 to be done under warrant of Thomas, Lord 

 Buckhurst, and John Fortescue. So that again 

 there must have been an order definitely trans- 

 ferring the school, or at least its endowment, 

 from the small to the large place. Precedents 

 for this were set in the days of Edward VI by 

 the transfer of the endowment of St. Mary 

 Weeke Grammar School, Cornwall, to Launces- 

 ton, and in the days of Elizabeth by a decree of 

 the Duchy Court of Lancaster consolidating five 

 small neighbouring school endowments at Ponte- 

 fract. These have been followed in our own 

 time by the transfer of Hemsworth to Barnsley 

 under the Endowed Schools Acts. 



8 Land Rev. Rec. Acct. Ser. i, bdle. 84. 



146 



